The celebrity footballer was gathering pace when Ryan Giggs arrived on the scene but it did not consume him. Photograph: Jon Super/AP

The crowd inside Shakhtar Donetsk's magnificent Donbass Arena, all 51,555 of them, applauded David Moyes's first substitution during Manchester United's Champions League visit last October. Their ovation was not for the departing Marouane Fellaini, unsurprisingly, but the substitute, Ryan Giggs, as the veteran replaced both the Belgian in the 1-1 draw and Raúl in the record books for the most appearances in Europe's premier competition. Tribalism was briefly forgotten in Ukraine that night. Football chose to recognise genuine greatness instead.

He finishes, in the words of the open letter that announced Giggs's decision to United supporters, with "immense pride, sadness but most of all excitement towards the future", although it is worth revisiting the past to appreciate the unique career football has lost.

The winger Sir Alex Ferguson famously described as floating "across the ground like a cocker spaniel chasing a piece of silver paper in the wind" when he first saw the then Manchester City trainee who made his league debut for United on 2 March 1991. Rodney King was filmed taking a beating from police officers in Los Angeles the following day. The Birmingham Six were 12 days away from freedom. Later that year Ukraine declared independence from the Soviet Union.

When Giggs first graced Old Trafford the Premier League was merely a twinkle in the eye of the "Big Five" – United, Liverpool, Everton, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur. The footballer as a celebrity was still a bizarre construct, despite Gazza's tears in Turin the previous summer. Then Giggs and Lee Sharpe arrived, vying not only for a place on United's left wing but teenage adulation and media scrutiny. The celebrity footballer was gathering pace but it did not consume Ryan Joseph Wilson, as he was christened, to the benefit of his longevity and trophy collection.

"The corporate world wanted to take over Giggsy but that was never his style," wrote Ferguson in his latest autobiography. "The George Best comparison stuck to him immediately and it was impossible to dislodge. Everyone wanted a piece of him. But Giggs was smart. 'See the manager' he would say to anyone wanting a tie-up. He found a way to transfer the blame for a refusal to me. He was clever.

"Giggs turned his back on the fame and branding. He lacked the temperament for that level of exposure. His personality was more introverted. To lead that sort of existence you need great energy to be trotting throughout the world and putting your face in front of a camera. It also requires a certain vanity; the belief that this is what you were made for."

That barbed comment by Ferguson was reserved for David Beckham. Giggs was the antidote for the former United manager and the second most gifted player he ever selected, behind Cristiano Ronaldo.

The tributes and accolades flowed Giggs's way when he turned 40 in November but the raw statistics of his career are worth repeating. A record 963 appearances for United, 171 goals, a record 162 assists in the Premier League and 34 trophies won, a haul that includes 13 Premier League titles, two Champions League winners' medals, four FA Cups, three League Cups and a Fifa Club World Cup.

He found a Champions League medal, his OBE and a few championship medals in the back of a drawer while tidying up at home a few years ago. "I had no idea they were there," he said. "I had forgotten about them." Giggs did not take his success for granted, however, he simply moved on to the next target.

There was breathtaking skill and goals to match; the FA Cup semi-final replay winner against Arsenal and revelation of that hairy chest, of course, goals in every Premier League season bar his final campaign and crucial, title-defining strikes against Leeds United and Manchester City.

But it was not always glory and adulation for Giggs at Old Trafford. It seems remarkable now but just over a decade ago the 64-times capped Wales international was a target for supporters' anger as his pace diminished and his form dropped. It ceased when Giggs reinvented himself from flying winger into composed and creative midfielder. As Rio Ferdinand tweeted upon news of Giggs's retirement: "No player adapted their game as well and as effective as Giggsy."

United gained a new manager, and perhaps their next one, on Monday but, as a player, Giggs exits as he entered the pitch at the Donbass Arena in Donetsk eight months ago; to applause from all sides.